Angels win a long one, 11-2

Five days after he was outdueled by Chris Archer and the Tampa Bay Rays in Florida, Richards did the outdueling at Angel Stadium, throwing five innings of one-run ball as the Angels offense exploded on Archer in a four-hour 11-2 win.

Six Angels recorded multi-hit games, and eight of the nine starters recorded a hit. Third baseman Luis Jimenez was the lone hitless player, but even he got on base via a hit-by-pitch and recorded an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

Last week in Tampa Bay, Richards couldn’t make it out of the fourth inning, while Archer held the Angels to one run over seven innings.

Richards (5-6) almost didn’t make it out of the fourth this time, either, struggling with his control to the tune of seven walks. But he allowed only one hit after Ben Zobrist’s first-inning homer, and struck out six Rays.

The Angels (64-72) scored their first run when Josh Hamilton doubled in Mike Trout in the first inning after Trout stole second.

They added one in the third, three in the fourth, five in the sixth and one in the seventh. Shortstop Erick Aybar broke the game open with a two-run triple and a two-run homer – his first non-solo home run in four seasons.

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